H97.66.1

From the WPA history of Oakland on file in the Oakland History Room of the Oakland Public Library: As part of a broad program of street improvements after 1865, the City of Oakland began to enlarge the municipal water system and to lay an extensive system of underground sewers. At the same time a great increase in the building of substantial residences created an ever growing demand for drain and chimney pipes. Nor was this development confined to the Eastbay; numerous cities and towns up and down the coast were experiencing a similar expansion. One of the first to take advantage of the situation was Daniel Brannan, who in 1870 founded the San Antonio Pioneer Pottery at the corner of East Twelfth Street and Seventeenth Avenue, East Oakland. This concern flourished for about a decade, manufacturing its own brand of patent drain and water pipes, pottery of all sorts, sewage pipes, and terra-cotta for the ornamentation of brick buildings. In 1873, it advertised:The San Antonio Pioneer Pottery is now manufacturing a larger variety of pottery than any shop in the state. Stoneware of every description such as churns, jugs, butter pots, water jars, water filters, milk pans, tea pots, bean pots, coffee jars, water pipe, sewage pipe, cooking dishes, fire brick, stove lining, terra-cotta, acid jars, porous jars, brick for smelting, beer bottles, ink bottles; also modeling clay, clay for luting, fire clay, fire sand. Particular attention paid to packing and shipping goods to the country and all orders promptly filled. Chemical containers of all descriptions made to order.The company was also agent for John Harden's Anti-Friction Glass Bearings.The San Antonio Pioneer Pottery is one of three potteries mentioned in the WPA History. The other two are California Pottery and Terra-Cotta Works at 12th St. and 234rd Ave. and the Oakland Art Pottery at 12th St. and 19th Ave, both in East Oakland. The collection includes marbles probably made in one of these potteries.Sam Brannan, a distinctive figure in California Gold Rush history, did have a brother named Dan but research to date has not been able to confirm that Daniel Brannan, of the San Antonio Pioneer Pottery, was related to Sam Brannan.

Used: food storage